The present invention relates to an automatic processing apparatus for photosensitive materials that is excellent in rapid processing capability and is capable of obtaining prints with stable image quality no matter how the day""s amount of processing is small.
As an automatic processing apparatus for photosensitive material exposing a photosensitive material and processing the exposed photosensitive material by a processing solution, there has been one that leads and immerses the photosensitive material to a processing solution tank to process.
In recent years, with a sudden increase of the number of minilabs characterized in rapid finishing, an amount of processing of photosensitive materials per one minilab has been reduced, and a rate of renewal of a processing solution in a processing tank has been lowered accordingly. Therefore, a processing solution tends to be deteriorated, and it also tends to fail in maintaining stable processing performance. In addition, demands for a minilab that does not require maintenance such as cleaning of equipment and daily management are also increasing in recent years.
With the background stated above, TOKKAIHEI Nos. 6-324455, 9-114068, 10-326004 and 11-237724 disclose technologies wherein a processing solution for processing photosensitive materials is housed in a highly-hermetic container (for example, an inkjet head) and the processing solution is supplied to an emulsion side of the photosensitive material through a gaseous phase.
Compared with a method to lead photosensitive materials to a processing solution tank to immerse them therein for continuous processing, the aforesaid method for coating the processing solution has less fluctuation in development finishing, because fresh processing solutions are always supplied for processing. In addition, a processing solution in the processing solution tank is deteriorated through aging, resulting in fluctuation of development finishing caused by the deterioration, but this fluctuation is less for the method for coating the processing solution, because of a system to supply a small amount of fresh processing solution. Furthermore, neither processing solution tank for reserving a processing solution nor rack for conveying a photosensitive material in the processing solution tank is needed, and it is not necessary to take out the rack in maintenance, thus, no processing solution spills over, making maintenance to be easy.
However, when processing by coating a processing solution on the exposed photosensitive material, there has been the possibility that a processing solution flows back in the direction opposite to that for advancement of the photosensitive material to cause processing unevenness, depending on the direction of coating the processing solution.
It is also conducted that a photosensitive material in a specific size is obtained by cutting from a long photosensitive material, and this sheet-shaped photosensitive material obtained through cutting is exposed to light to be subjected to processing. In the case of conducting this processing through the method of coating, when there are plural processing steps, it is necessary to convey a photosensitive material for coating a processing solution for the following step, after coating the initial processing solution on the surface of the photosensitive material. This conveyance caused fluctuation in processing property, resulting in a fear to cause unevenness in processing.
The invention has been achieved in view of the actual conditions stated above, and an object of the invention is to provide an automatic processing apparatus for photosensitive materials that is free from processing unevenness, excellent in rapid processing capability and is capable of obtaining stable image quality with less maintenance and daily management no matter how an amount of processing is small.
The inventors of this invention, therefore, made various studies to solve the problems mentioned above, and found out that the problems are solved by the following structures.
Structure 1
An automatic processing apparatus for processing an exposed photographic light-sensitive material by coating a processing solution on the photographic material, comprising:
a conveying device having a conveying path for conveying the photographic material in a conveying direction while inclining the photographic material downward in the conveying direction; and
a coating device for coating the processing solution on an inclined portion of the photographic material in a line form in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction.
By coating a processing solution on an inclined portion of a photosensitive material conveyed to be inclined downward in its advancing direction in a line form in the direction that is almost perpendicular to the advancing direction of the photosensitive material, it is possible to prevent that the processing solution flows back in the direction opposite to the advancing direction, resulting in uniform finishing without processing unevenness.
Structure 2
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 1, wherein the conveying device conveys the photographic material while inclining the photographic material within a range of 2 to 20xc2x0 downward in the conveying direction.
When a photosensitive material is conveyed to be inclined within a range of 2-20xc2x0, a processing solution does not flow back in the direction opposite to the advancing direction of the photosensitive material, and it does not flow fast in the advancing direction, resulting in uniform finishing without processing unevenness.
Structure 3
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 1, wherein the coating device coats the processing solution on the photographic material by jetting the processing solution from a spray nozzle through a gaseous phase.
It is preferable that the method to coat a processing solution by jetting it from a spray nozzle to the photosensitive material through a gaseous phase can conduct processing without giving causes for processing unevenness such as vibration, deformation, conveyance stop and slip to the photosensitive material.
Structure 4
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 1, further comprising a processing solution removing device to remove the processing solution from the photographic material with a pair of nip rollers on a condition that the photographic material is inclined downward in the conveying direction before the conveying device conveys the photographic material to a succeeding processing section after the coating device has coated the processing solution on the photographic material.
By removing processing solutions with paired nip rollers for the photosensitive material inclined downward in its advancing direction, after the initial processing solution is coated on the surface of the photosensitive material and before the processing solution for the succeeding step is coated, when the automatic processing machine has therein a plurality of processing steps, it is possible to prevent that the initial processing solution is mixed with the processing solution for the succeeding step, and that the processing solution flows back in the direction opposite to the advancing direction of the photosensitive material, resulting in uniform finishing.
Structure 5
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 4, wherein the conveying device conveys the photographic material while inclining the photographic material within a range of 2 to 20xc2x0 downward in the conveying direction.
When a photosensitive material is conveyed to be inclined within a range of 2-20xc2x0, a processing solution does not flow back in the direction opposite to the advancing direction of the photosensitive material, and it does not flow fast in the advancing direction, resulting in uniform finishing without processing unevenness.
Structure 6
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 4, wherein the photographic material is a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material; the processing solution is a color developing solution; the succeeding processing section is a bleaching fixing process using a bleaching fixing solution and the succeeding processing section comprises a second coating device for coating a bleach-fixing solution on the photographic material by jetting the bleach-fixing solution from a spray nozzle through a gaseous phase.
It is preferable that the method to jet a processing solution from a spray nozzle to a photosensitive material through a gaseous phase makes it possible to conduct processing without causing factors for processing unevenness such as vibration, deformation, conveyance stop and slipping, for the photosensitive material.
Structure 7
An automatic processing apparatus for processing an exposed photographic light-sensitive material by coating a processing solution on the exposed photographic material, comprising:
a conveying device having a conveying path for conveying the exposed photographic material in a conveying direction,
a coating device for coating the processing solution on the exposed photographic material by jetting the processing solution from a spray nozzle through a gaseous phase in a direction inclined to the conveying direction with an inclination angle of 70 to 88xc2x0.
When an angle of a processing solution jetted from a spray nozzle is 70-88xc2x0, a processing solution does not flow back in the direction opposite to the advancing direction of the photosensitive material, and it does not flow fast in the advancing direction of the photosensitive material, resulting in uniform finishing without processing unevenness.
Structure 8
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 7, wherein the coating device jets the processing solution downward vertically from the spray nozzle, and the conveying device conveys the photographic material while inclining the photographic material downward in the conveying direction.
Owing to the structure wherein the spray nozzle jets downward vertically and the photosensitive material is conveyed obliquely, it is possible to provide an angle in a simple structure.
Structure 9
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 1, wherein the coating device coats the solution in a coating line perpendicular to the conveying direction and the conveying device comprises one of a comb-toothed roller and a wart roller to convey the photographic material to the coating line, and the one of a comb-toothed roller and a wart roller contacts with a surface of a photosensitive side of the photographic material.
After a processing solution is coated on a photosensitive side of the photosensitive material, it is necessary to convey the photosensitive material on which the processing solution has been coated, and it is possible to convey the photosensitive material surely without causing fluctuation (processing unevenness) on processing property, by using a comb-toothed roller or a wart roller that comes in contact with a photosensitive side of the photosensitive material.
Structure 10
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 9, wherein the one of a comb-toothed roller and a wart roller is pared with a flat roller so as to form a pair of nip rollers and the flat roller is provided at a reverse side of the photographic material so that the photographic material is conveyed between the pair of nip rollers.
It is possible to convey surely without causing fluctuation of processing property (processing unevenness), by the use of the conveyance by paired nip rollers wherein a flat roller is arranged for the reverse side of the photosensitive material, in place of a comb-toothed roller or a wart roller.
Structure 11
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 9, wherein a pitch of crests of comb-teeth of the comb-toothed roller is in a range of 1-5 mm and a depth of a root of a comb-tooth of the comb-toothed roller is in a rage of 0.3-5 mm.
It is possible to convey more surely without causing fluctuation of processing property (processing unevenness), by the use of the comb-toothed roller mentioned above.
Structure 12
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 9, wherein an interval between warts of the wart roller is within a range of 1-5 mm and a height of a wart of the wart roller is within a range of 0.3-5 mm.
It is possible to convey more surely without causing fluctuation of processing property (processing unevenness), by the use of the wart roller mentioned above.
Structure 13
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 10, wherein the conveying device comprises a pair of squeezing flat rollers before the conveying device conveys the photographic material to a succeeding processing section after the coating device has coated the processing solution onto the photographic material.
It is possible to prevent processing unevenness by removing the first processing solution through squeezing and by coating a processing solution for the succeeding step.
Structure 14
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 9, wherein the conveying device comprises a hard roller.
After a processing solution is coated on a photosensitive side of the photosensitive material, it is necessary to convey the photosensitive material on which the processing solution has been coated, and when a rubber roller is used as a conveyance means, a processing solution sometimes adheres and remains on the rubber surface to cause processing unevenness, but in the case of a hard roller, a processing solution neither adheres nor remains, resulting in no processing unevenness, which is preferable.
Structure 15
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 1, wherein the hard roller is one of a comb-toothed roller and a wart roller which is paired with a flat roller.
When the hard roller stated above is represented by paired nip rollers composed of a comb-toothed roller and a flat roller or of a wart roller and a flat roller, a processing solution does not adhere to remain, and processing unevenness is not caused, which is preferable.
Structure 16
The automatic processing apparatus according to structure 15, wherein when the photographic material is a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material and the processing solution is a color developing solution, roller coming in contact with the color developing solution are the hard roller.
When all rollers coming in contact with the chromogenic developer are hard rollers on the occasion where the photosensitive material is a silver halide color photosensitive material and the processing solution mentioned above is a chromogenic developer, processing unevenness in the form of a spot in a cyanic color can be prevented, which is preferable.